SQL.Working with views - sql

I have a table 'Goods' with different information about goods (name, price, etc). I need to create a view at the same scheme as table 'Goods' has. But the view must be empty. And when user adds new good to the view it is saved in table 'Goods', but the view remains empty when user opens it next time. So main idea is not to show existing data to the user which has access to the view.

Assuming your on a database system that supports a concept like SQL Server's CHECK OPTION, and you're allowed to create a view that doesn't have that option set, you should be fine:
create table T (ID int not null)
go
create view V
as
select * from T where 1=0
go
select * from V
go
insert into V(ID) values (10)
go
select * from V
go
select * from T
The two selects from V return 0 rows. The select from T returns one row:
ID
----
10
CHECK OPTION:
Forces all data modification statements executed against the view to follow the criteria set within select_statement. When a row is modified through a view, the WITH CHECK OPTION makes sure the data remains visible through the view after the modification is committed.
And you want the opposite - you want to allow data modifications performed through the view to create rows which are invisible through the view.

Create table Goods1 with "insert trigger" on it which make insert into Goods and delete from Goods1

As far as I know this isn't possible. The whole point of a view is that it is a view to a table or grouping of tables, ie. it must show the data that matches the view.
http://www.w3schools.com/sql/sql_view.asp
What you could do is create another table called GoodsView and add a trigger to it to INSERT into Goods table and DELETE from GoodsView afterwards.
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/iseries/v5r3/index.jsp?topic=%2Fsqlp%2Frbafysqltrig.htm

Related

SQL Transaction Set Temporary Value

I am relatively new to databases and SQL, and I am not clear on how or whether transactions may relate to a problem that I am trying to solve. I want to be able to temporarily set a value in a database table, run some query, and then clear out the value that was set, and I don't want any operations outside of the transaction to be able to see or alter the temporary value that was set.
The reason I am doing this is so that I can create predefined views that query certain data depending on variables such as the current user's id. In order for the predefined view to have access to the current user's id, I would save the id into a special table just before querying the view, then delete the id immediately afterward. I don't want to worry about some other user overwriting the current user's id while the transaction is in process. Is this a proper use for a transaction?
I am using H2 if that makes a difference.
SET #tempVar=value;
I don't know if you really need to go through the pain of creating a temp table and setting the value. This seems far simpler.
You can then do - SELECT * FROM TABLE_NAME WHERE COLUMN=#tempVar;
I think you want a Procedure or Function. Both can take a parameter as input.
ex.
CREATE PROCEDURE pr_emp
(
#input INT
)
AS
SELECT *
FROM myTable
WHERE emp_id = #input
ex.
CREATE FUNCTION v_empid (#input INT)
RETURNS TABLE
AS
RETURN
SELECT * FROM myTABLE WHERE emp_id = #input;
These could let you to access information for an empid. For example:
SELECT * FROM v_empid(32)

Refresh view in HSQL

I would like to update a view in HSQL without writing the same statement again and again.
I have a table CONTACTS with ID, First_NAME and LAST_NAME. I also have a VIEW for this table, which I created with
CREATE VIEW IDGREATERTHREE AS SELECT * FROM CONTACTS WHERE ID > 3;
How can I update my VIEW after I added a new column to my table. I want to update my table without anything like this:
ALTER VIEW IDGREATERTHREE AS SELECT * FROM CONTACTS WHERE ID > 3;
I would like to find a way to refresh my invalid view in a similar way like in Oracle:
ALTER VIEW IDGREATERTHREE COMPILE;
I am also looking for a way to select just the invalid views. WithSELECT * FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.VIEWS I am not able to see any difference between an invalid and a non-invalid view.
A solution for this would be to write an ON DDL trigger.
In this ON DDL trigger , you check if your modifying your table.
If this is the case, then you use Dynamic SQL to recreate your view. This is doable with plsql (you tagged with oracle). There is ample documentation on creating triggers and dynamic SQL on the Internet.
HSQLDB cannot have invalid views. When you create a view, the SELECT * FROM CONTACTS is expanded to the actual column names. When you add a column to the table the view is recompiled with the original column names and the new column is not included.

Delete a column from a table without changing the environment

I'm working on Oracle SQL database, quite big database. One of (among 150 tables) this table has to be changed because it's redundant (it can be generated through a join). I have been asked to delete a column from this table, to get rid of the redundancy. The problem is that now I have to change code everywhere someone made a insert/update/etc on this table (and don't forget the constraint!). I thought "I can make a view that do the right join" so the problem it's solved for all the select, but it's not working for the insert, because I'm updating 2 tables... Is there a way to solve this problem?
My goal is to rename my original table original_table in original_table_smaller (with one less column) and create a view (or something like a view) called original_table that work like the original table.
Is this possible?
As your view will contain one column that is not present in the real table, you will need to use an instead of trigger to make the view updateable.
Something like this:
create table smaller_table
(
id integer not null primary key,
some_column varchar(20)
);
create view real_table
as
select id,
some_column,
null as old_column
from smaller_table;
Now your old code would run something like this:
insert into real_table
(id, some_column, old_column)
values
(1, 'foo', 'bar');
which results in:
ORA-01733: virtual column not allowed here
To get around this, you need an INSTEAD OF trigger:
create or replace trigger comp_trigger
instead of insert on smaller_table
begin
insert into old_table
(id, some_column)
values
(:new.id, :new.some_column);
end;
/
Now the value for the "old_column" will be ignored. You need something similar for updates as well.
If your view contains a join, then you can handle that situation as well in the trigger. Simply do an update/insert according to the data to two different tables
For more details and examples, see the manual
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/appdev.112/e25519/triggers.htm#i1006376
It is possible to insert/update on views.
You might want to check with USER_UPDATABLE_COLUMNS which columns you can insert to the view.
Check with this query:
select * from user_updatable_columns where table_name = 'VIEW_NAME';
Oracle has two different ways of making views updatable:-
The view is "key preserved" with respect to what you are trying to update. This means the primary key of the underlying table is in the view and the row appears only once in the view. This means Oracle can figure out exactly which underlying table row to update OR
You write an instead of trigger.

How do I make one user see a different table with same name

Goal: When everybody else does SELECT * FROM mytable they see one version of the table. But when a specific user does SELECT * FROM mytable they see another version of the table.
I think I'm like halfway there with creating a new role and putting the single user in it. Then creating a copy of the default table with SELECT * INTO newrole.mytable FROM dbo.mytable. But when the user does SELECT * FROM mytable they still see the dbo.mytable. How do I get them to default to the newrole.mytable? I still need them to see all the other dbo tables just not this one.
Create a new schema, and a duplicate table (or view onto dbo.table if that's what you want) in it - eg., otheruser.table. Then, set the user's login to default to that schema:
USE atest
GO
CREATE ROLE [arole]
GO
CREATE SCHEMA [aschema] AUTHORIZATION [arole]
GO
CREATE USER [auser] FOR LOGIN [modify_user] WITH DEFAULT_SCHEMA = aschema
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember 'arole', 'auser'
GO
CREATE TABLE dbo.atable ( col1 int )
GO
CREATE TABLE aschema.atable (col2 varchar(10))
GO
INSERT INTO dbo.atable( col1 ) VALUES( 1 )
GO
INSERT INTO aschema.atable( col2 ) VALUES( 'One' )
GO
PRINT 'dbo'
SELECT * FROM atable
GO
EXECUTE AS USER = 'auser'
GO
PRINT 'aschema'
SELECT * FROM atable
GO
REVERT
GO
I don't know if this may help but you may be able to make a view of a different table with the same name, here is an excerpt from http://www.w3schools.com/SQl/sql_view.asp:
In SQL, a view is a virtual table based on the result-set of an SQL statement.
A view contains rows and columns, just like a real table. The fields in a view are fields from one or more real tables in the database.
You can add SQL functions, WHERE, and JOIN statements to a view and present the data as if the data were coming from one single table.
I use Postgres primarily, so YMMV, but in postgres you need to
1) Create the new schema, preferably owned by the new role, and put the table in it
2) Set the search_path variable to include that schema BEFORE the other one.
Hope it helps.
This is a very bad idea. I'm not sure why people try all these crazy methods to improve security but it's just plain counter productive.
Ultimately every security system comes down to some line like the following if(User.HasAccessTo(object)). In fact, if you've designed a well thought out security system that's almost exactly how it should work. The more disjointed your authentication checks, the more likely you'll make a mistake. If only some users have access to certain record information you should add a flag to those records and verify access based on that.

How to auto-redefine view when underlying table changes (new column)?

We've got a view that's defined like this
CREATE VIEW aView as
SELECT * from aTable Where <bunch of conditions>;
The "value" of the view is in the where-condition, so it is okay to use a Select * in this case.
When a new column is added to the underlying table, we have to redefine the view with a
CREATE OR REPLACE FORCE VIEW aView as
SELECT * from aTable Where <bunch of conditions>;
as the Select * seems to get "translated" into all the columns present at the time the view is (re-)defined.
My question: How can we avoid this extra step?
(If the answer is dependent on the RDBMS, we're using Oracle.)
I know you specified Oracle, but the behavior is the same in SQL Server.
One way to update the view with the new column is to use:
exec sp_refreshview MyViewName
go
Of course, I also agree with the other comments about not using a SELECT * in a view definition.
This extra step is mandatory in Oracle: you will have to recompile your view manually.
As you have noticed, the "*" is lost once you create a view:
SQL> create table t (id number);
Table created
SQL> create view v as select * from t;
View created
SQL> select text from user_views where view_name = 'V';
TEXT
-------------------------------------------------------
select "ID" from t
You should not be using * in your views. Specify the columns explicitly.
That way you are only retrieving the data you need, and thus avoid potential issues down the road where someone adds a column to a table that you do not want that view to return (e.g., a large binary column that would adversely impact performance).
Yes, you need to recompile the view to add another column, but this is the correct process. That way you avoid other compilation issues, such as if the view reference two tables, and someone adds a duplicate column name in one of the tables. The compiler would then have issues determining which of the columns was being referred to if you did not prefix a reference to the column with a table alias, or it might complain if there are duplicate column names in the results.
The problem with automatically updating views to add columns comes when you extend your model, for example to
SELECT a.*, std_name_format(a.first_name, a.middle_names, a.last_name) long_name
or even
SELECT a.*, b.* from table_a a join table_b b....
If you have a view of just SELECT * FROM table, then you probably should be using a synonym or addressing the table directly.
If the view is hiding rows (SELECT * FROM table WHERE...), then you can look at the feature variously known as Fine Grained Access Control (FGAC), Row Level Security (RLS) or Virtual Private Database (VPD).
You might be able to do something with a DDL trigger but that would get complicated.